A Different League

Well I finally did it and got a Lie-Nielsen. I wasn’t planning on getting the bronze, but they were temporarily out of the iron so I sprung for it. I like the weight in a smoother anyway and it looks totally cool too. What can I say? Its in a whole different league than my previous purchases. I didn’t have to touch this plane. It was ready to go: flat sole, all the edges eased, flat and square blade, the chip breaker was square and true (and long enough), no slop on in the depth adjustment, the tote was faired beautifully. In short, it was perfect. The blade comes set at at 25 degrees, but I like a hollow grind at 30 or better so I put it on the Tormek. It took a while on the Tormek to get that five degrees I wanted – This A2 IS hard all right! The edge retention has been great and needless to say the plane performs superbly. That gnarly piece of oak in background was my test piece. This plane smoothed with ease. Merry Christmas to me!